ROBERT Milkins produced one of his best results during his professional career to knock out John Higgins in the Haikou World Open.

The Gloucester potter secured a place in the semi-finals with an impressive display and shock win against last year’s World Championship winner winning 5-3.

A quality start which saw Milkins hit breaks of 117 and 97 put him 2-0 in front before Higgins fought back winning the next two frames and levelled terms with a break of 136.

But Milkins was to stun the snooker world by taking the next two frames to put himself just one frame away from a famous victory. Higgins won the seventh frame but his in-form opponent secured the shock win with two scoring visits to the table.

Milkins will battle for a place in Sunday’s final against Stephen Lee who continued his fine run of form with a convincing 5-1 win over Scotland’s Graeme Dott. Lee, who lost in the semi-finals at last month’s German Masters event, will be hoping to go one better tomorrow (Saturday).

Worl-number-one Mark Selby was in ruthless form to beat Shaun Murphy 5-0. Selby though was playing an off-key Murphy who had suffered a bout of sickness before the match.

Selby will meet Mark Allen who reached the last four after beating Mark King 5-1 but the game was tarnished by the humid conditions which affected both players’ cueing.

“I can’t really take too much pleasure out of that victory,” Allen told World Snooker after the match.

“I played ok but I think the conditions out there beat Mark King. Conditions were very, very tough for both of us but I adapted better than him and hopefully the conditions will be better in the next round.

“I’m happy with way I’m playing, I’m scoring quite well and if I keep playing the way I am, I’m confident that I can win. It will be a tough game against Mark Selby but I’m confident in my own game and if I play well I expect to win regardless of who I play.”